In the early days, buying domains was not like it is now. We’re talking about the early days of the internet as there were few websites. In those days, a person could create any domain name and use it. Now, after a few decades, things are not the same. You don’t get domain names quickly now.
For business owners, companies, and agencies, domain name holds a significant value. When a random person buys a domain, he chooses a domain without research. For example, a person who made an e-commerce store to sell t-shirts wouldn’t research domain names. It is because people are not aware of it. However, people in business look for these factors and search for domains names. They hire an expert to do this job of exploring the domain names. You can see its demand in the screenshot below.
Many people are earning by researching to find the perfect domain for their clients. You can say that the internet is a world where domains are the plots and houses that you buy. Some are expensive enough, and some aren’t, just like in this world.
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How do domains become expensive?
1. How old is your domain?
There are many reasons for the increase in the price of domains. One factor is domain age. When a domain is old and has performed well, it has backlinks spread all over the web. And because of this, it helps in better search engine optimization of the website. Purchasing a domain like this is becoming the successor of a heritage. You own a successfully running organization that you need to handle; you don’t build it from ground level.
2. Buying and Selling of Domains
We don’t know when a domain would become valuable, but some people buy and sell domains. They do this business. They buy domains they think will become useful later and sell them at higher prices.
3. Choosing Short Domains
Short domains work better. If you observe some of the most valuable brand domains, they’re all short lettered. For example, Google, Yahoo, and Bing have four to six lettered domains. However, eight lettered domains also work better, such as Microsoft and Facebook. We can say that the rules and norms we define don’t matter more than creativity. For example, you might have heard that numbers shouldn’t be there in domain names. But 9gag.com is a successful example of putting numbers in domain names. A completely numbered domain like 360.com was sold at a high price too. Although you need to avoid hyphens, dashes, and special characters in your domain.
We know that .com domains are the most popular and used domains. The most expensive and valued domains considered are the two words .com domains. For instance: fb.com, hp.com, and pk.com. These domains are easy to remember and make the most sense for businesses since they can be the abbreviation for any business name. Organizations might buy these domains at high prices from the domain owners.
How to Determine the Value of the Domain?
You can’t determine the value of a domain. There are different factors and perspectives involved in top-selling domain names. Your domain might be worth a few bucks for a person, and for the other person, it could be worth one thousand dollars. And for this very person, your domain worth could decrease to $20 at one time, and at another, it could reach $2000. Don’t get confused! The thing is simple. It’s the need for the domain. How much a person understands what your domain could make him achieve.
Big Companies in search of Domain Names
Nobody knows when an average-waged person could become a millionaire by selling a domain. The random letter domains like Ib, uh, yn might be a stepping stone for their owner’s financial success. For instance, Facebook bought the domain named fb.com from a US farm group for $8.5 million.
Everyone Can’t Buy Premium Domains
Well, startup businesses and individuals cannot buy high-quality domains. But in their businesses, when they can afford such domains, we recommend buying premium domains. It will have a good impact on their business. Also, if you don’t have enough money to register a costly domain, don’t settle for a low-cost domain for your business websites. You want to earn a profit and it would not be a healthy decision if you save a few bucks and buy a low-cost domain that wouldn’t produce results for you.
Now, here we are not talking about the domains that cost 1000 dollars, as it is clear a startup business cannot afford it. We are only talking about the difference in prices like $10 and $60. Choose the $60 one if you can, as it would be best for you. However, it isn’t always an excellent investment. For example, if we search for a domain named voice.com sold in 2019 for $30,000,000. But it doesn’t come on the first or second page when we search it on google.
Below we’ll talk about the ten most expensive domain names sold.
Top 10 Highest Domain Name Sales in History
1. Business.com – $345 Million
It is a business search engine founded by the Walt Disney internet group chairperson named Jake Winebaum in 1999. In 2007, Yellow Pages Publisher RH Donelly purchased this domain business.com for $345 million. But before that, this domain was purchased for $7.5 million in 1999. Its price went so high in eight years because Dow Jones and The New York attempted multiple times to buy this domain after 1999. Business.com is counted at the top of the highest domain name sales list.
2. VacationRentals.com – $35 Million
This website nowadays books hotels for travelers all over the world. For example, if you’re in the USA and want to visit a particular place in France, you can check for hotels nearby to stay and book it from this website. Brian Sharples bought this domain for $35 million in 2007 in a race against his competitor, Expedia.
3. PrivateJet.com – $30.1 Million
Travel services company in Atlanta, Nations Luxury Transportation, purchased this domain in 2012 for $30.1 million. Private jet sells and rents premium quality charter jets to business flights worldwide.
4. Voice.com – $30 Million
This website was not an active working website before they purchased it. Block. One bought this domain publicly from the website godaddy.com in 2019 for $30 Million. It is the highest-priced sold domain in recent years as there is currently no domain sold for the price more than voice.com.
5. Internet.com – $18 Million
This domain name is currently on sale as of 2021 December. However, Quinstreet Inc bought it for $18 Million in 2009 from WebMediaBrands, news, and information-providing company. Internet.com was a kind of blog that had different brands talking about IT, news, technology, and startup businesses.
6. 360.com – $17 Million
The CEO of Qihoo, Zhou Hongyi, bought this domain in 2015 from a British multinational telecommunications company, Vodafone, for $17 Million. He wanted to include all his services and products under one umbrella, and since numbers 360 represents completeness, it was the perfect domain to purchase. It was a short, number-based domain and made perfect sense for his business.
7. Fund.com – $14.9 Million
At funds.com, you get all the information related to financial knowledge. Gentile, Philip bought this domain in March 2008 for £9.9 million, equal to 14.9 million US Dollars.
8. Hotels.com – $11 Million
Hotels.com was established in 1991 to provide a hotel booking facility by toll-free number in the USA. A decade later, USA networks Inc. bought it for $11 million, which was a tremendous amount of money for a domain at that time.
9. Tesla.com – $11 Million
Elon Musk, the Tesla owner, tweeted in 2018 that he bought the domain Tesla.com. He also said that they never wanted the name Tesla Motors and the alternative name they thought they’d name it was Faraday. However, someone already had this name. On the 8th of December 2018, he stated they had finally come up with the name tesla.com after years of effort. He also said they never liked TeslaMotors.com even when they only made cars.
10. We.com – $8 Million
In his article at DN Journal, Ron Jackson informed that the We.com domain was purchased for $8 Million in 2015. It was also the biggest domain sale of the year.
Some Information about Buying and Selling Domains
Purchasing and selling domains are called Domain Flipping. Many people still do this business, and they profit from it. In simple words, you buy domains for low prices, and when their demand gets high in the market, you sell them for high prices. You can also do this by registering new domains on godaddy.com and domain.com instead of buying already made domains. Moreover, you can search for domains that are not active and buy them.
It’s Simple But
It is simple, but you need to know about domain flipping. You need to know when to buy a domain, when to sell it, how to sell it, and how you look for the people who want to buy the domain. You need to be good at the research as you would need to research trends, keywords, and similar data to know what domains are in demand or demand soon. Domain flipping could be a minute game, which means a domain that costs a specific high price today doesn’t mean it would hold the same price all the time. So, it will help if you are quick and active-minded here. You can also get a seasonal discount for domain names on some websites.
TLDs (Top-Level Domains)
TLD is what you see at the end of a web address. For example, www.facebook.com has the TLD .com. You can buy domains with extensions like,
- .net
- .org
- .co
However, the most valued TLD is .com. You can also make your own TLD extensions like .xyz and .anime. Be bold, wise, and a risk-taker in domain flipping like every business. It will help if you don’t get scared of investing money in domains, though you know you could lose.
Domains are like fingerprints, and they cannot be identical. Although, you can find similar domains, for instance, Computer.com, and Computers.com, or Computerss.com. A domain name is like the address of a home. There could be only an empty plot instead of a home, which is the case here. Not all the domains have websites hosted on them all the time.
Things to Avoid
Make sure you buy domains from legal, authentic, and trusted resources. Sometimes a stolen domain is sold to someone, and the person who buys the domain later experiences legal actions against him. And this could be a huge investment loss. Moreover, make sure ICANN registrars register the domain you buy.
Final Word
We have talked about the highest-priced domains ever sold. We also discussed the metrics that make your domain worth a thousand dollars. If you are an individual or a startup company looking to buy a domain name for your organization, you can reach out to Adravity. We will search domain names for you at an affordable price. You will get a domain name that would cost you a cheap price, and it will be better for your business.